Track-cleaner



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.-

J. BAKING-ER. TRACK CLEANER. No. 553,823. Patented Feb. 4, 1896.

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TRACK CLEANER.

No. 553,823. Patentd Feb 4, 1896.

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V ANDREW B.GRAHAM.FllOTO-LWFQWR3HINGTUNDC UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH BARINGER, OF AKRON, OHIO.

' TRACK-CLEAN ER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 553,823, dated February 4, 1896.

Serial No. 557,523. (No model.)

To all whont it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J OSEPH BARINGER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Akron, in the county of Summit and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Track-Cleaners, of which the following is a specification.

My invention has relation to improvements in machines for the cleaning away of snow, sand, dirt, &c., from the tracks of railroads, and has especial relation to the cleaning of street-railroads employing an electric current as a motive power.

The objects of my invention are to provide a substantial track-cleaner which can be easily handled, and one which can be used alone without requiring a car to propel it.

To the aforesaid objects my invention con sists in the peculiar and novel construction, combination, and arrangements of the various parts hereinafter described, and then specifically claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

In the accompanying drawings, in which similar referencenumerals indicate like parts in the different figures, Figure 1 is a plan of my track-cleaner; Fig. 2, a front elevation; Fig. 3, a side elevation; Fig. 4, a section at the lines X X of Figs. 1 and 3; Fig. 5, a detail of my sand-distributing device.

In the drawings, 1 and 2 are a pair of axles on flanged wheels 3 on a piece of track. 011' these axles is a frame consisting of side bars, 4 and 5, connected by end bars, 6, one only being shown. Centrally between the wheels 3 and parallel to the track is a central bar, 7, attached to the end bars, 6. Extending between the side bars, 4 and 5, is a cross-bar 8, and to which are fastened by brackets 13 bars 9 and 10. Parallel to the side bars, 4 and 5, pivoted on the bars 9 and 10, are eight rocking arms 11, four on each side, on the lower end of which are brooms 12, so adjusted as to just reach the track.

On the central bar 7 are a number of upright posts 14, 15, 16, and 17, on the top of which are journal-boxes 18, in which is a shaft 19, bent between each box into a crank, forming in all four cranks, each set a quarter-turn from the one next to it, on the inner end of which is a sprocket-wheel 20, geared by a sprocket-chain 21- to a similar wheel 22, loose on a shaft 23, journaled on a box on a crossbar 24 and end bar, 6. The inner end of this shaft 23 terminates in a bevel-pinion 24, meshing into bevel-gear 25 on the axle 2.

The upper ends of rocking arms 11 are connected to the cranks in shaft 19 by rods 29. On the front end of shaft 19, after passing through a journal-box in front of the frame, is a paddle-wheel 30, tight on this shaft and arranged to revolve therewith. Under this wheel is a scoop-shaped plow designed to throw up the snow into contact with the revolving paddle-wheel and by it thrown to one side out of the way.

Back of the rocking arms 11 are the sandboxes, one on each side, consisting of hoppers 31 fastened to the side bars 4 and 5. These hoppers are open at the bottom and are closed by gates 32. To the inner ends of these gates are attached rods 33, which intheir turn are attached to a hand-lever 34 pivoted on a bracket on the central bar 7. The rods 33 are connected to the lever 34 on opposite sidesof the pivot in order to cause them to act simultaneously. Directly under these sand-boxes and parallel to axles 1 and ,2 are a pair of shafts 35 and 36, their axles being in alignment and journaled in frame-bars 4, 5, and 7, the inner and nearly abutting ends bearing bevel-gears 37 and 38, which mesh with and are driven by a pinion 39 on shaft 23.

On the outer ends of shafts 35 and 36 are a pair of cylinders 40 having in their peripheries a number of cup-shaped recesses 41, into which the sand enters and stays until the mouths of the recesses are turned downward, when it falls into hoppers 42 placed thereunder and attached to the bars 4 and 5, from whence it slides out through tubes 43 to the track in front of the wheels. These feedwheels fit up snugly against the openings in the hoppers, so that no sand follows around the wheels except what is contained in the cup-shaped recesses.

Between the side bars 4 and 5 is a platform 44 for the operators to stand on. On this platform are a pair of pivoted hand-levers 45, to which are attached rods 46, attached to clutches 47, which clutches are capable of sliding longitudinally of said shafts and arranged to revolve therewith. They have a ICO pair of bosses on their inner faces and are intended to engage corresponding recesses in the hub of sprocket-wheel 22 and communicate motion thereto, and are held normally in gear by springs and are thrown out by the hand-levers 45 through the rods 46.

It is my intention to run this track-cleaner by electric power. I have shown in Fig. 1 the dotted outlines of two motors geared into gears on the axles 1 and 2. These may receive power from an overhead trolley or bya storage-battery.

I do not use any particular form of motor or trolley or battery, and have simply indicated a storage-battery 48 on the main platform of the truck, connected to and controlled by a cut-out switch lf).

The operation is as follows: Power having been communicated to the motor by the battery, from thence motion is communicated to the shaft 23 by the bevel 25 and pinion 24: and through the pinion 39 to the shafts and 36 by gears 37 and 38, revolving the feedwheels 40. When the brooms 12 are needed the clutch 47 is thrown into gear by handlever 45, and the shaft 19, with its cranks, re-

volves rapidly, rocking the brooms back and forth across the track and simultaneously operating the paddle-wheel 30, throwing the snow plowed up by the scoopover to the side of the track.

I do not always use paddle-wheel 30 and its scoop, but instead terminate the shaft 19 at the front of the frame and use an ordinary V-shaped snow-plow.

What I claim is- 1. The combination in a track-cleaner of a frame mounted on a pair of axles 011 flanged wheels, a series of rocking arms carrying reciprocating brooms operated by cranks on a shaft driven by a sprocket-chain driven by a shaft mounted in said frame and revolved by a pinion meshing in a bevel on one of said axles and a pair of sand-boxes provided with gates arranged to be simultaneously operated by a hand-lever substantially as shown and described.

2. A track-cleaner consisting of a frame mounted on a pair of axles on flanged wheels, said axles bearing bevel-gears arranged to communicate motion through a pinion to a shaft mounted in said frame, said shaft bearing a second pinion, a pair of transverse shafts bearing bevels meshing in said pinion, the said shafts bearing each a feed-Wheel having recesses in their peripheries; sandboxes mounted on said frame and immediately over the said feed-wheels, said sandboxes provided with gates arranged to be simultaneously operated by a hand-lever; a second shaft mounted on uprights in said frame both shafts having sprocket wheels, said wheels being connected by a chain, the sprocket on the first shaft being loose thereon and arranged to be operated by a clutch on said shaft and controlled by a hand-lever, said second shaft bearing cranks, said cranks being connected by rods to rocking arms mounted in said frame, said arms bearing brooms at their lower ends all arranged and designed to coact, substantially as shown and described.

In testimony that I claim the above I hereunto set my hand.

JOSEPH BARINGER. In presence of- G. E. HUMPHREY, R. A. MYERs. 

